Old School Gamer Magazine chats with “Pixelated Heroes†director Mikey McBryan to find out everything about the upcoming NHL 94 documentary. Discussing the origin of the film, the research process and the rapidly approaching and massive NHL 94 tournament in Las Vegas, as well as the film’s first screening, McBryan lets us know everything he’s up to.
For more on “Pixelated Heroes,†Click Here.
Review Fix: How did the idea of this documentary come to you?
Mikey McBryan: It all started in 2005. I was in college in Red Deer Alberta. My friends and I at the time got talking about how much fun it was to play Golden Eye on Nintendo 64. So just like any home sick kid we got bit by the nostalgia bug. One Sunday we headed down to the local used music and game store to buy a 64 and GoldenEye 007. It wasn’t cheap, $80 for the system, $50 for the game and $25 each for extra controllers. While I we were paying for the system I noticed they had Sega Genesis games. Thinking back I remembered how much fun it was to play NHL ’94. So I asked the guy behind the counter if he had any copies for sale. He laughed at me and pointed. There was a stack of at least eight. I walked over and to my surprise, they had a price tag of $1.99 each. I thought to myself wow that’s pretty cheap, that game was my favorite. I walked back to the counter and grabbed the 64 and GoldenEye and we left. That night we played GoldenEye and we had a blast! But after a while I noticed something. GoldenEye 007 has aged horribly, the controls suck and the graphics are not as good as I remembered them. The game is pretty bland by 2005 standards (not to mention 2017 standards). I kept on thinking about NHL ’94. Is it as good as I remembered it? I haven’t played it for about 6 years (which is a lifetime when you are that age). So I went back to the game store and I bought a copy of NHL ’94 for $1.99 and a Sega for $25 bucks. Plugged it into a CRT TV and I was blown away. NHL ’94 was still amazing. I got my friends over and we started playing. I went back to the game store again and I bought every copy they had of NHL ’94. That game didn’t deserve to be in the bargain bin. From that moment on I bought every copy of NHL ’94 I can find (on all systems). I have over 130 copies now. Call me crazy and I still don’t know why I do it.
Now flash forward to 2014. I just finished filming 6 seasons of my TV Show Ice Pilots NWT (Now on NETFLIX). I was sitting at a pub with my buddy and Ice Pilots Director Jereme Watt. He asked me what I wanted to now that the show was done. I said that I really loved the movie King of Kong. I wish I could make a movie about NHL ’94 the same way they did about Donkey Kong. Jereme laughed at me told me NHL ’94 was one of his favorite games as a kid and I should do it! I started researching that night on NHL94.com and the rest is history.
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